- Homelands
- Centre for Psychological Sciences
- Research Centre on Peripheral Populations
About me
Kyoko Murakami is a senior lecturer in psychology at the School of Social Sciences, the University of Westminster, London. She is also an honorary research fellow at the University of Bath. UK. Previously, she held an associate professorship in psychology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She received her PhD in psychology at Loughborough University in 2002.
Kyoko PhD thesis, titled Revisiting the past: Social organisation of remembering and reconciliation. Her PhD research was funded by the Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme, currently Universities UK. Kyoko's PhD was supervisor by Dr David Middleton and examined by Prof Rom Harré and Prof Steve Brown. She was a member of Discourse and Rhetoric Group, also known as DARG based in Social Sciences, Loughborough University (1998-2002).
Kyoko's research topics include social remembering, reconciliation, learning in collaboration, dialogism and ageing. She served the executive committee of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology and a member of the editorial board of Culture & Psychology. Her published books include Discursive Psychology of Remembering and Reconciliation (Nova, 2012) and Dialogic Pedagogy (Multilingual Matters, 2016) and Activity Theory: An Introduction (Ibidem, Columbia, 2024). See the list of publications in the research tab.
Teaching
Module teaching
-Further Social and Developmental Psychology (Module leader, Level 4 Criminology and Psychology UG Year 2)
-Individual Differences (Level 4 Psychology, UG 1st year)
-Self and Society (Level 4 Psychology, UG 2nd year)
-Democratic Education in International Context (Level 5, Politics and International Relations, UG 2nd year)
Lecturing for various modules (Levels 3 to 7) on qualitative research methods such as discourse analysis, thematic analysis and social psychology of communication.
Student research supervision (PhD, MSc, BSc in psychology)
PG and UG research projects with qualitative approaches and being underpinned by sociocultural theory and CHAT and the social constructionist perspective.
I am happy to supervise PhD research that addresses social identities, social remembering, reconciliation (and peace), displacement, intergenerational memory, parenting style of Holocaust survivors. Email me if you want to discuss your research idea.
Applying for a PhD | University of Westminster, London
Student research topics: mealtime socialisation, vaping culture, Social media's effect on wellbeing, para-social breakups, wellbeing effects of outdoor activity, digital health, family expectations for 1st generation students, and youth political participation, and socialisation of Filipino nurses.
I have been guest lecturing at various universities in the UK, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, China, Brazil, and Japan on discourse analysis, discursive psychology, and sociocultural theory. I also give workshops to PG students on developing research from cultural psychological perspectives at Aalborg University, Denmark and the University of Stavanger, Norway.
Research
I am interested in examining language use and social relations configured and reconfigured in social and cultural practices. As a member of research centres in Westminster--Westminster Centre for Psychological Sciences, HOMELandS, Research Centre on Peripheral Populations), I am involved and leading in a few research projects in exploring COVID-19 related issues and the displacement experiences of diasporic populations (Indian Diaspora) and refugees.
As my theoretical and methodological orientations, I draw on a social constructionist paradigm including Discourse Analysis, Discursive Psychology and Cultural Psychology/Sociocultural Theory/Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (and open to other approaches such as ethnography and phenomenology). My current research ranges from examining remembering and reminiscence, peace and reconciliation practices, to exploring dialogic space in everyday settings.
As my long standing interest in social remembering and reconciliation, I am a member of War and Pilgrimage Network and Burma Campaign Society. Previously, I was part of the AHRC network of Silence, Memory and Empathy with cultural studies scholars and museum and heritage professionals.
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.